Brewing

Walk-In Beer Cooler

Build a walk-in cooler for your brewery with a CoolBot and a standard air conditioner

CoolBot for Brewers

You can build an affordable walk-in cooler for your brewery by using a CoolBot and a standard air conditioning unit. Whether you’re fermenting, lagering, or just keeping your brews cold for drinking, the CoolBot can help you with your cooling needs. Our customers save money on upfront costs, monthly electricity bills and expensive technician visits compared to a traditional walk-in cooler. CoolBots are used by homebrewers, nanobreweries, microbreweries and craft breweries all around the country, as well as the bars, pubs and restaurants that pour their beers.

Fermenting and Lagering

Fermenting: Many brewers ferment their beer at around 50°F – no problem for a CoolBot.

Lagering: For brewers who needed to lager their beer at 34°F, we have a few suggestions:

1. Insulate all surfaces (ceiling, walls, floor) to at least an R value of 25. Rigid foam paneling is the best insulation material.
2. Use plenty of caulk and spray foam to seal every gap, crack and seam to prevent air leakages.
3. Install a well-sealed door gasket.
4. Try to limit door opening to less than 4 times per hour.
5. If you’re still having a hard time reaching 34°F consistently, add another A/C unit and CoolBot to increase your cooling power. This will also add some redundancy to the system in the event of an accident.

Fermenting and Lagering: Some of our brewing customers need the ability to switch between higher and lower temperatures (35°F to 60°F) for their brewing process, so they need to have larger A/C units to get down to these low temperatures. The issue is that once the cooler reaches the low temperature (35°F), it becomes difficult to increase the temperature in the cooler to the high temperature (60°F).

For these cases, we recommend a pass-through thermostat. You can plug the A/C through the pass through thermostat, so that as soon as the room hits the set temperature on the CoolBot, the power is shut off to the A/C. Leave the CoolBot plugged in as usual. If you opt for this set up, you must purchase an A/C that can automatically restart after a power failure (some automatically reset to 70F). We can help you with any issues on this – just give us a call.

“Here are a few photos of my cooler. It is a pantry next to my kitchen (4.5′ x 5.5′). The air conditioner exits into my garage. With a little work and the CoolBot, I have what I believe is the perfect setup to fermenting my beer. Cheers to all the fine people at Store It Cold.“

– Jim S., Home Brewer in OK

“Here is our second walk in for our brewery. Took two days to build, cost about $2800 with labor and AC. Keeping the new 6×14 room at 38. Only took 40 minutes to drop it from 70 to 38!“

– Josh, The Big Rip Brewing Co., MO

“Just wanted to say thanks for the help on this. We got our CoolBot and AC up and running very quickly and it’s been keeping temps around 38 degrees for a week or so. Thanks!“

– Steve S., Brewery in Massachusetts

CoolBot In Action

Additional Set Up Tips

Running Taps: The CoolBot is great at keeping your tap room at the right temperature – cold and refreshing, but not too frothy. Be sure to insulate around the tap lines, either using spray foam or foam pipe insulation.

Flooring: If you are wheeling kegs in your cooler, a concrete floor or plywood coating over insulated foam will be good to spread the weight load. Be careful if you are using any keg racks with pointed ends – you will want to put extra plywood or metal underneath to spread the weight.

Customer Coolers

Looking for a turnkey solution?

• The CoolBot Walk-in Cooler harnesses the power of The CoolBot and can be assembled in as little as one hour

• Includes professional quality walk-in cooler enclosure, CoolBot and window air conditioner